


Unrushed

by reyescott



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 13:15:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10877541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reyescott/pseuds/reyescott
Summary: After the Archon, after Meridian, after life in Andromeda settles down, Scott and Liam get drunk.“You ever fall for your best friend?” Liam asks. His voice is oddly steady for someone supposedly as drunk as he is. Scott chances a glance his way, surprised to see that Liam’s looking directly at him.“Yes,” Scott says, no shame.





	Unrushed

Scott’s not drunk anymore, not like he was, but the overall feeling of weightless, careless freedom’s still flowing through his veins.

He knows better–Pathfinder, big job to do. But the last 48 hours have been a whirlwind of a shitstorm, and he just wants a little break from running, running, running.

Liam’s good for a break. Liam’s good for a lot of things. The hopeful, slightly embittered outlook on their new galaxy really puts Scott’s inner monologue of screaming into perspective.

Besides the company, Liam has beer. When Scott asks how, he doesn’t answer with anything other than a smile. So he doesn’t ask, anymore.

Another universe, and Scott thinks they’d be in college, drinking away undergrad. It’s easy to imagine. They’re already watching bad vids on a dirty old couch, after all. They’re getting wasted on the regular. It’s close.

“You think we’d’ve met,” Scott says, out of the blue, when he and Liam are watching vids in Liam’s room, “back home?”

Liam doesn’t immediately answer. He’s holding his head up on the back of the couch with his arm, his fingers dug into his hair, his eyes half lidded as he watches the vid. There’s a soft smile playing at his lips.

Scott thinks he looks beautiful. He keeps that to himself. “Dunno,” he says. “I’d like to think so. You’re a good guy, Ryder. You know that?”

“Same to you,” Scott says. He swallows, watches while Liam lifts his head and drinks from his beer, watches the way his jaw and throat move with it. He wants to tell him. But Scott’s not an idiot, and he’s not an asshole. Liam’s not there, not ready for Scott to tell him how he feels. At first, when it was gentle flirting–that’s different. When Liam asked, ‘How’d you have me?’ and Scott told him that he could show Liam the night of his life, that’s different. 

Scott’s beyond the passing interest, and deep-seated in feelings. Liam needs to come to terms with the unknowns he already faces–the kett, Meridian, the angara, Andromeda–before they can do anything else. Before Liam might be willing to try.

Scott knows he might not feel the same, that he might not be willing to try. He thinks he’s okay with that.

“This is the best part!” Liam says, pointing to the screen. Scott follows his finger, looking up on screen at a turian getting into a bar fight back home, fists raised, his salarian best friend at his back. 

_“Can’t you have one drink without getting in a fist-fight?”_

Liam’s grinning, wide. Scott’s overcome with the desire to lean across the distance, brush his lips over the curve of Liam’s throat. He forces himself to pay attention. 

The turian’s hot, looks good in a leather jacket, and when the movie’s over, he turns to his best friend–who’s got blood dripping from his head, who’s wearing a crooked smile, who’s holding a gun at his side–and dips him into a kiss.

A human-made film, then, but he’s not going to complain.

Scott doesn’t bat an eye, but he hears Liam’s breath catch in his throat. The credits roll, and Scott keeps his eyes on his beer. Liam doesn’t speak for a while. He’s seen the vid–“One of my favorites, Scott, and how can you not have seen this, it’s a classic,”–so Scott knows he’s not surprised. He knew it was coming.

The tension in the air shifts. “You ever fall for your best friend?” Liam asks. His voice is oddly steady for someone supposedly as drunk as he is. Scott chances a glance his way, surprised to see that Liam’s looking directly at him.

Lying, then. Or as sober as Scott.

“Yes,” Scott says, no shame, because he has. Not just Liam, but back home, too, when he was a little younger and a little deeper in love, but it’s a story long-since told and Scott’s done the best with that he could. The past is the past, and this is where he is, now. 

In love with his best friend again, sitting on a ratty couch in another galaxy.  
Liam’s eyes dip to Scott’s mouth, and he licks his lips. Adjusts his body so he’s shifted closer to Scott, and his hand twitches on his thigh, like he’s trying to touch. Scott almost meets him halfway, but thinks that this needs to be Liam’s decision. If it’s going to happen, Liam needs to bridge the distance. It’s not about confidence, anymore, but about certainty. 

And Scott shouldn’t be dating his subordinates. If they fuck it up, it hurts a lot more than either one of them. On the other hand, they just saved Andromeda from the threat of the Archon, successfully navigated first contact, successfully brought humanity to fruition in a new galaxy. That’s gotta count for something.

“I should go,” Scott says, slow. He doesn’t want to–the buzz of alcohol in his veins wants him to push Liam back into the cushions of his shitty couch, kiss him and touch him until he’s coming apart under Scott’s body–but he needs to. They’re on the brink of something, and Scott would rather it be a sober decision than a drunken mistake. This is his best friend, after all. 

But Liam reaches out for him as he stands up, his fingers wrapping around Scott’s wrists effortlessly. Scott raises his eyebrows in question.

“Stay,” Liam says. His voice is definitely too steady to be wasted. Confident, certain–Scott can’t help but smile.

“What made you change your mind, Mr. Familiarity?”

Liam shrugs, letting go of Scott’s wrist to rest his bottle on the table in front of them, then settles back. “Repeat exposure?” he tries. Scott almost laughs. “Sorry, that was bad. You spend enough time around someone, you’re bound to get to know them sooner or later. Unknown becomes known. The unfamiliar feels like coming home.” His fingers still twitch on his leg, so Scott sits back down, facing Liam. He turns his palm up, and waits. “Dunno. You’re a lot more familiar than anything else in this galaxy.” He chuckles, ducks his head–he’s nervous, underneath it all.

He nudges Liam’s leg with a brush of his fingers. Go big or go home, and he’s already home. “Liam,” he says, soft. “What do you want?”

No hesitancy–Liam’s eyes snap to Scott’s, and he says, “You. If–your offer’s still on the table. I know you dated, before.” Something takes hold in Scott’s chest, warm, blossoming until he can feel Liam’s words down to his fingertips. You.

“A few dates with a guy on the Nexus,” Scott says, with a light laugh, “can’t compare.” And they can’t–Liam’s all-encompassing, a force to be reckoned with, strong and opinionated and fierce and quiet, calm, soft–Scott could wax poetic about him for days. He’s a good member of the team, but a better friend.

He’d slept on the floor by Scott’s side after Habitat 7. He’d sat with Scott after SAM stopped his heart, listening to Scott hold back angry, terrified sobs. He’d carried Scott, singlehandedly, after the Archon severed his SAM connection and Scott could barely think.

Liam’s expression’s soft and open, and he finally reaches out and touches Scott’s hand.

“Sorry I made you wait,” he says, drawing circles with his fingertips.

“Didn’t make me do anything.” Scott could have found someone else. He tried. It’s stupid to get caught up on your best friend, but Scott was–is–okay with where they’re at. Maybe ‘waiting’ isn’t the right term when you’re content. He turns his hand over, draws his thumb up Liam’s arm, scooting closer until their knees touch, until Scott’s practically in his lap, until he can swing a leg over Liam’s lap and straddle him. “Your pace is a good pace.” He rests his hands on Liam’s shoulders. 

He’s so calm, under him, no shaking, no anxiety. It’s a relief, in a way Scott hadn’t expected.

He remembers the first time he’d kissed a boy–at fifteen, under the covers in a tent in the woods on a field trip. He’d been fucking terrified, of screwing up, of making the wrong choice, but Liam’s as solid as the rocks that dug into Scott’s back, back then.

Liam draws his hands up Scott’s sides, and they don’t shake.

“Still,” Liam continues, “kind of feel like a jerk. Didn’t mean to lead you on.” 

Scott shakes his head. “You didn’t lead me on. I like the way you make me feel, so I let myself have that.” 

Liam’s chuckle is warm, vibrates his chest up through Scott’s hands. “Bet I can make you feel a lot better than that.” 

Fuck, but Scott loves him–holds the words back behind his teeth and tongue until he can be sure they won’t scare Liam off. He’s had a lot longer to live with the reality of “Scott and Liam”, “Ryder and Kosta”, a lot longer to live with the reality of male attraction. It’s not fair to pull Liam into the deep end with him.

“I’m your first?” Scott clarifies, because it’s hard to believe Liam played the familiarity card when he’s as calm as he is faced with the reality. 

“First guy worth it,” Liam starts, “yeah.” He swallows. He’s staring at Scott’s lips, but the question still hangs in the balance between them. “Never met anyone like you, Scott.”

“Flatterer.”

“Can I kiss you?”

Scott responds by dipping his head, pushing their foreheads together. “I dunno, Kosta,“ he says, a challenge in his voice, "can you?”

It's stupid, but just the kiss, Liam’s lips against his, has Scott lifting his hands to cup Liam's face, a quiet noise bubbling up from his throat. He's good at this--keeps his hands on Scott's hips, rubbing circles with his thumbs into his hipbones, brushing his tongue against the seam of Scott's mouth, light pressure, and it's all Scott can do to open up for him.

Scott’s the one that pulls back, breaking apart and gasping against Liam’s mouth. He keeps his eyes closed, groans when Liam trails kisses down his jaw, his neck, to his collarbone. Gripping Liam’s shoulders, Scott presses his face to Liam’s hair, and breathes, slow.

“Can’t believe this is what I was missing out on,” Liam says, his arms wrapping around Scott’s waist. He presses a kiss to Scott’s collarbone. “And that you let me.”

Sighing, Scott runs a hand through Liam’s hair, humming in his throat. “What can I say, I’m a patient guy.”

Liam leans back, resting his hands on Scott’s hips again. There’s an intimacy here Scott’s missed with anyone, like settling into bed after a hard day. A closeness he hasn't shared with anyone since he was 19.

"You scared the shit out of me," Liam says, after a while. "At the remnant city? I thought--God, couldn't stop praying you were okay. Just keep him alive. Just let him get through this."

Scott licks his lips, turns his gaze away. He'd pushed himself, then, and everyone on the team knew it. Tried to warn him not to, but all Scott could think about was how they couldn't let this fail. People didn't come six hundred years to fail. To fall to some crazy-minded fool.

It wasn't just them, either. Scott couldn't just let that happen to the angara, either. Not when he had the technology in his own head to fix it.

"Some of the most terrifying minutes of my life."

"You're telling me," Scott says. He draws his thumb across Liam’s cheek, then moves, off onto the side with a sigh. “Not exactly excited to do that again.” There’s a lull in the need for Pathfinders, now, so Scott’s not expecting any heavy lifting, not when they have a decent foothold in the galaxy, not when they’re doing as well as they are figuring out Meridian.

Liam clears his throat, and his hand twitches—towards Scott’s thigh. He reaches out, draws his hand along Scott’s leg, and sighs. His hand’s warm, sends shivers along Scott’s skin. “You want this? Me?” He pauses, then, “Us?”

“Don’t tell me you forgot about all the flirting.” Scott sends him a smile. “Liam. Come on. I wasn’t subtle at all.”

“No, course not—kind of hard to forget how, uh, memorable you made that. Just checking in, Ryder. Don’t wanna overstep my bounds.”

“Yeah,” Scott says, chuckling as he rests his hand over Liam’s. “Hell fucking yeah, Liam.” He leans forward, smiles against Liam’s lips, and cups the back of his head.

His skin’s still buzzing. Alcohol and happiness mix until they’re indistinguishable, and Liam sighs into his mouth, a pleased little noise following it. 

He doesn’t say ‘I love you’, he doesn’t say, ‘You’re what kept me going.’ He doesn’t say anything he’s thought about when he’s looked at Liam since the moment he woke up out of cryo—scared, confused, excited. It’s too much for Scott to process, and he’s been at it for months.

Even a head start feels like falling behind in love, but fuck if he’s going to trade this for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> @reyescott on tumblr, I cannot believe how much I love liam kosta


End file.
